NAP500 is it a no brainer upgrade

Posted by: Derek Wright on 21 August 2001

There are now the occasional NAP500s appearing on the second hand market.

Here is my naive question

How good are they in passive non Naim speaker systems, how do they compare to a brace of 135s.

I know that we all believe that they are the "ultimate" but would you buy if you had the cash spare.

Thanks for any comments

DRW

Posted on: 21 August 2001 by NigelP
Derek,

I posted a question on this a short while ago to some debate around which is the best way to go. Naim's position is clearly that the superior transistor technology makes this better than a 6-pack in active mode. I have heard people tell me that they prefer the active setup and others tell me they prefer the 500. I have heard both and they are, both, needless to say, very good. Some folks say that the separation of the amps and avoidance of x-overs is better than a passive configuration and some say that the 500 is so damn quick with lower distortion that it makes six-pack 135 look weak. My view is that I just don't know - I heard the two systems separately. I am thinking of buyng a 500 and have two questions:

  • Where are the flood of used 500's coming from?
  • Why are they appearing?
Posted on: 21 August 2001 by Allan Probin
quote:
Where are the flood of used 500's coming from?
Why are they appearing?

"Flood" ? I've seen 2 advertised second hand in the year or so they've been available.

Why ? I bought one of them, it was from someone who was spending an increasing amount of time working abroad and didn't have the time to justify such a high-cost system. The one I bought was still sealed and had never been used.

Allan

Posted on: 21 August 2001 by Derek Wright
Also I have only seen two for sale, but it does show that there will be the odd one around that will be cheaper than the dealer prices.

Allan - I hope you are - I expect you are pleased with with the 500 - do you have any comments on it.

NigelP
I would not follow the Active route as I think that my room layout will not be suitable for wallstanding speakers. (No available wall space in timber frame house - hence no real solid wall to place the speakers against even if I did have wall space.)
There is also the cost issue in moving from 2X135s to active 135s versus the second hand 500 route.
Plus I would have a space problems with the additional boxes for a 135 active configuration


Derek

Posted on: 21 August 2001 by Top Cat
No matter how good a NAP500 is (I've never heard one, btw), at the price it can never be a 'no brainer' unless you're positively dripping with cash.,.....

I saw a 52/52PS for sale for £2200 (I think) recently, which must be tempting for some...

John

Posted on: 21 August 2001 by Allan Probin
There is no doubt that the 500 is absolutely bloody amazing. It wasn't all plain sailing though. Initially, although obviously sonically superior to 135's the music was a bit heavy handed and brutish and it actually took a very worrying week before I could comfortably say that the 500 was musically superior to 135's. A lot of this initial struggle I put down to the fact that my 500 had gone straight from the factory into storage for seven months, unlike the normal situation where a new 500 is put on soak for several days before final alignment, shipped to the customer and is powered up again within days or a few weeks.

What really took the 500 into another league was when I eventually got around to rearranging my racking and getting the 500 into its own rack instead of sharing one with the XPS and Supercap (detrimental to both the 500 and to the XPS and Supercap). The 500 demands careful attention to setup. Because the gains are potentially so great with the 500, so is the difference that setup can make.

The 500 can do all the obvious stuff like detail and clarity (so far I havn't listened to a single CD where I havn't noticed detail I'd never heard before) but most impressive is the level of musical involvement it is capable of inducing. It's incredibly transparent on a musical level, in other words, I can sit and listen to music for hours without being unduly aware of listening to it through a HiFi system. I'm not saying that the sound is undistinguishable from a 'live' event, just that the level of musical communication is so great that the means becomes irrelevent.

I can't really help with the comparison of the 500 against active 135's in my system because to be honest I havn't done it. However, I am familiar with the difference that going active makes to a system and I've never known it make this level of improvement.

Is a 500 a no-brainer ? Well, that depends if you were already considering spending similar sums of money on upgrading to an active system anyway. Personally I have no regrets. I have no doubt that I'll see this amp through to its first service and very probably many years beyond that. From a long term perspective it will probably end up being a more cost effective and enduring product than either my CDS2 or 52.

Allan

Posted on: 21 August 2001 by ken c
quote:
I'm not saying that the sound is undistinguishable from a 'live' event, just that the level of musical communication is so great that the means becomes irrelevent.

very well put. don't get me thinking about a 500 now!! its hard for me to think that my system can sound better than it does now, but i know there will always be surprises.

enjoy

ken

Posted on: 22 August 2001 by Derek Wright
Many thanks for the write up on the NAP500 - you have me fired up ready to go!

Derek